A dedicated team of trades could be drafted in to take care of repairs to Angus Council’s 7,700 council houses.
The council-run repairs outfit is one of the options being considered as part of a major focus on how the authority looks after its tenants and social housing stock.
The issue of how quickly repairs are carried out remains high up the complaints list for many local rent-payers.
And it comes just two years after a national contractor pulled the plug on a three-year, £10 million repairs contract just 10 months into the deal.
Talks with other areas which operate successful direct labour organisations (DLOs) have already taken place.
Major challenges facing council housing service
The DLO idea was floated during a wide-ranging communities committee discussion of the authority’s strategic housing investment plans.
It touched on areas including tenant participation, new build programmes and significant challenges around staffing and finance.
Arbroath West, Letham and Friockheim Independent councillor Serena Cowdy said the repairs issue regularly features in her workload.
“From my experience of dealing with constituents the contract issue does come up a lot for various reasons,” she said.
“I’ve often thought there was argument for building a core team within the council again of tradespeople who can take on some of these jobs.
“I know there’s lots of challenges around that, but I wonder if that conversation’s being had and if more exploration could be done on that.”
Angus in talks with other areas
Housing projects team leader Euan McCallum told Ms Cowdy it was already under consideration.
“As part of the options appraisal for the delivery of the repairs service going forward we’ve had discussions with a number of local authorities,” he said.
“We’ve targeted against those that are high performing in terms of repairs, nearby or similar in scale.
“So we’ve spoken to Aberdeenshire Council, Perth and Kinross, Moray, Dundee and also North Lanarkshire.
“We’ve been casting the net pretty wide.”
He added: “I think that’s a message we’ve heard consistently; that a DLO model, or a hybrid DLO, is something that’s successful in other areas.
“The thing that’s the bigger issue behind that is how we would build it.
“But I can absolutely confirm it’s something we’re looking at as part of the options appraisal.”
In 2022, the tenant repairs programme was plunged into crisis when Airdrie-based MPS pulled out of its council contract.
The three-year responsive repairs and change of tenancy works contract went live in spring 2021.
A dedicated housing repairs call centre was set up as part of the scheme.
But MPS invoked a back-out clause in the contract, which covered homes in Montrose, Brechin, Forfar and Kirriemuir.
It left a mountain of repairs which had built up during the Covid pandemic.
Conversation